SOME of the letters in the Widnes and Runcorn World in recent months are spot on for why we have to pay increased council tax every year.

It is not just the money received from the Government or the type of taxation; the underlying problem is a range of greedy and complacent council employees and ego-tripping councillors.

They are the problem, responsible for tax increases.

The way to deal with it is simple.

Cut back unnecessary jobs; stop hidden pay increases and perks like subsidised travel and leased cars.

It's not rocket science; it's called cost control in the real world.

Stop blaming the government, council leader McDermott and get your chief executive and other directors to earn their inflated salaries.

It's now July - don't start telling us around the end of the year, it's too late to do certain things.

Every year without fail the number of council employees goes up and so does the wages and perks bill for them.

Added to these often-lucrative salaries you can count generous pension contributions, then there are the lease cars and car mileage claims paid out to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of employees, month after month.

How much for all this I wonder on the council tax?

The council might think its propaganda might mask such facts - it doesn't.

Forget the slogan, 'third lowest council

tax in the north west';; it doesn't wash with me anymore.

I can't sack the directors who are jacking my utility bills up.

I can, however, vote out complacent councillors and elect one who will sort out the greedy and ever-increasing army of staff in Halton Borough Council

Ian Smith, Widnes